THE STAFF FOOTBALL TEAM

Stepping into one Mr.Hardy’s boots as coach of the staff team was always going to be a tough challenge, made all the harder with our main rival, Aloha College, strengthening their squad with young stars over the last summer. Playing an untested 2-4-1-1 formation (the now infamous ‘arrowhead’ formation) we managed results of 1-5, 1-4 and 1-5 against! Now I am no professional manager but even I could see something was wrong. On analysis, I found the average age of our team to be just over forty! That was it, only one thing to do - scout the EIC youth team. So along came Richard and Kamal who were in the last year of contract and leaving EIC under the Bosman ruling. It did the trick, we followed up three straight defeats with four straight victories! This stole the league ( all be it a league of two teams) from under the noses of Aloha Athletic, sending them back to Marbella with their tails between their legs. To add insult to injury, at the end of season tournament, both EIC teams came in first and second, leaving Aloha and Sunnyview colleges to fight over the wooden spoon. My thanks go to all our squad members - Simon, who can win a header without even leaving the ground. Paul, who showed great courage to play on when Katrina had ordered him home. Juan, a 5’ 6” ex Real Betis goalkeeper, who can jump 6’ 5” Alex, who could turn on a sixpence despite wearing more bandages than a mummy. Martin, who tackles like only northern football players can, finally Andy’Iceman’Wohlmuth, Richard Sutcliffe and Kamal Mansuri without whom none of this would have been possible. Finally thanks to Gwyneth from Primary for sponsoring the team! Barry Gardner.